CHAPTER 19
WORKING CAPITAL MANAGEMENT
AND SHORT-TERM PLANNING
CHAPTER IN PERSPECTIVE
The early part of the text is focused on the value creating aspects of business: investment,
debt policy, and maybe, dividend policy. While value building is not generally associated
with working capital management today, value may be negatively impacted by working
capital inefficiencies, lack of liquidity, and policies adversely affecting customer
relationships. This chapter opens with a general discussion of working capital, the net
working capital concept, followed by the flow concept of the working capital and cash
conversion cycles. The time line is used to discuss these concepts. (See General Teaching
Note at the end of the chapter.)
The second section of the chapter studies the short-term versus long-term financing
tradeoffs. Presented with a seasonal variation in asset needs or a long-term trend, how
should working capital (current assets) be financed? Short-term financing rates average
well below long-term, but must be rolled over frequently if one is financing permanent
working capital needs. Long-term financing costs more but fewer trips to the market are
necessary. Three alternative financing strategies are discussed.
The third section of the chapter is directed toward short-term planning using the sources
and uses of cash and cash budget formats. Note the assumption of proportional cash
flows/day in the cash budget. A shorter time period, such as weekly or daily, may be
necessary for greater precision.
The fourth section explores the working capital financing alternatives available. Bank and
finance company negotiated loans and direct financial market financing via commercial
paper are the alternatives discussed. Finally, interest computational formats are discussed.
Distinguish between simple interest paid each period and compound interest costs
incurred if interest is not paid each period (usually monthly). The effective rate is the
same as the simple interest rate for interest paid each period. The effective rate increases
with the length of interest payment deferral, is higher for discounted loans, and
compensating balance requirements that increase the amount of deposit balances.
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CHAPTER OUTLINE
19.1
WORKING CAPITAL
The Components of Working Capital
Working Capital and the Cash Conversion Cycle
The Working Capital Trade-Off
19.2
LINKS BETWEEN LONG-TERM AND SHORT-TERM FINANCING
19.3
TRACING CHANGES IN CASH AND WORKING CAPITAL
19.4
CASH BUDGETING
Forecast Sources of Cash
Forecast Uses of Cash
The Cash Balance
19.5
A SHORT-TERM FINANCING PLAN
Options for Short-Term Financing
Evaluating the Plan
19.6
SOURCES OF SHORT-TERM FINANCING
Bank Loans
Commercial Paper
Banker’s Acceptance
Secured Loans
19.7
THE COST OF BANK LOANS
Simple Interest
Discount Interest
Interest with Compensating Balances
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19.8
SUMMARY
TOPIC OUTLINE, KEY LECTURE CONCEPTS, AND TERMS
19.1
WORKING CAPITAL
The Components of Working Capital
A. Short-term circulating current assets, invested to support long-term fixed assets,
and current liabilities are called working capital.
B. Current assets, composed of cash accounts, marketable securities, accounts
receivable, and inventories represent an important level of asset investment for
business that must be financed. See Table 19.1, PanelA. (figures in millions)
TABLE 19.1, Panel A
Current Assets
Cash
Accounts receivable
Inventories
Other current assets
Total
Current Liabilities
$ 60,485 Accounts payable and accrued
liabilities
169,706
156,331
5,122 Other current liabilities
$391,644 Total
$196,580
138,657
$335,237
Note: Net working capital (current assets – current liabilities) equals $391,644 – $335,650 = $56,407
million.
Source: Table created using CANSIM series label numbers: D86228, D86229, D86230, D86237, D86252,
D86254 (Statistics Canada, Financial Statistics for Enterprises, Total Non-Financial Industries).
C. There are advantages of having plenty of current assets, such as having plenty of
ready cash, promoting sales with generous credit terms (accounts receivable), and
large amounts of inventories.
D. There are disadvantages of having too much invested in working capital. The
profitability of assets is lowered if too much cash assets are idle, too generous
credit terms may bring losses, and inventory investments are unable to earn their
opportunity rates of return.
E. Current liabilities are short-term obligations to pay suppliers (accounts payable),
employees and borrowed funds (accrued expenses), and short-term lenders such as
commercial banks.
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Working Capital and the Cash Conversion Cycle
A. The difference between current assets and current liabilities is called net working
capital (NWC). The term NWC is often used interchangeably with working
capital discussed above. NWC is the extent that the circulating current asset pool
exceeds the current liabilities and is often thought of as the net liquidity of the
business. See Figure 19.1.
Figure 19.1
B. NWC is also the extent to which current assets are financed by long-term, noncurrent liabilities, sources of financing.
C. Working capital needs fluctuate with changes in sales, changes in credit policies,
changes in production techniques, types of products produced, desired finished
goods stocks, the credit terms of suppliers, the pay periods of employees, and
many other variables which are related to business policies, the type of the
business, and the external operating environment.
D. Four key dates in the production cycle affect the level of investment in working
capital. The longer the periods, the larger the investment. See Figure 19.2.
Figure 19.2
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E. The first time period is the accounts payable period, the length of time the firm
has between purchasing materials and the payment date for the materials. The
longer the period, the larger the accounts payable balance and the shorter the cash
conversion cycle.
F. The second key period is the inventory period, the time between the purchase of
raw materials and the sale of the finished goods. The longer the time period, the
greater the investment in inventory.
G. The third key period is the accounts receivable period, the time period from the
sale of the goods (on credit) to when cash is collected from the customer. Again,
the longer the period, the larger the investment in accounts receivable.
H. The fourth key period is the cash conversion cycle or the time between the
payment for raw materials and the collection of cash from the customer. Note that
the accounts payable period, or the credit offered by suppliers, provides some
financing for the working capital cycle, but the longer the cash conversion cycle,
the larger the investment in working capital.
Cash conversion cycle = (inventory period + receivables period - accounts payable
period)
I. The length of the inventory period is the average inventory divided by the daily
cost of sales (CGS/365). The accounts receivable period is the average accounts
receivable divided by average daily sales (sales/365). The accounts payable period
is the average accounts payable divided by the daily cost of goods sold or
purchases (CGS/365).
The Working Capital Trade-Off
A. The cash conversion cycle is influenced by management policies, such as credit
policy, levels of inventory, and credit policies of suppliers.
B. The higher the level of working capital, the greater the carrying costs or the costs
of maintaining current assets, including the opportunity cost of capital to finance
the current assets.
C. The lower the level of working capital, the greater the shortage costs or the costs
incurred from shortages in current assets, such as inventory stock outs and lost
sales from a restrictive credit policy.
D. The financial manager must attempt to minimize the total opposing carrying and
shortage costs.
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19.2
LINKS BETWEEN LONG-TERM AND SHORT-TERM FINANCING
A. The cost of total assets in the firm is called the total capital requirement. The total
capital requirements change over time, increasingly steadily in a growing
company, varying seasonally as in lawn and garden stores, and decreasing as a
firm is slowly liquidated. See Figure 19.3.
B. The financial manager has a choice of financing the total capital requirement with
debt or equity (discussed earlier) or short-term or long-term financing. Three
variations of short-term/long-term financing are studied here. There is a
risk/return tradeoff between the extremes. See Figure 19.5.
Figure 19.5
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C. The “relaxed strategy” is a conservative, mostly long-term financing with few
payoff requirements in the short run. This strategy has considerable cash assets at
times and emphasizes liquidity. The current ratio and level of net working capital
would be very high, but the return on assets will likely be lower, because this
strategy favours liquidity over profitability.
D. The “restrictive strategy” uses the matched maturity approach and finances longterm assets with long-term financing and short-term assets with short-term
financing. At times there will be a high level of short-term financing providing
funds for a seasonal increase in inventory and accounts receivable. The current
ratio will fluctuate considerably with the seasonal fluctuation in current assets and
current liabilities, as will profitability as interest financing rates move up and
down. This strategy is more profitability focused, but also more risky. Short-term
financing may not always be affordable or available.
E. The “middle-of-the-road” policy recognizes that a certain minimum level of
current asset investment is always present or is permanent. Using the matching
policy, the firm would finance the permanent portion of current asset investment
with long-term financing and the short-term current asset needs with short-term
financing. There are times in the seasonal cycle when the firm will borrow shortterm, and there are times when idle funds will be invested in marketable securities
waiting for the next seasonal cycle. In this case the firm will use the liquidity from
both marketable securities and short-term financing.
19.3
TRACING CHANGES IN CASH AND WORKING CAPITAL
A. Comparing two balance sheets (points in time) enables the financial manager to
see the changes or flows that occurred in the period between the two balance
sheets.
B. The sources and uses of cash statement (Table 19.5) are constructed by first noting
the change in each of the balance sheet accounts (Table 19.3) and several items
from the income statement.
C. Sources of funds are indicated by the cash flows from operations, decreases in
assets, and increases in liability and equity accounts.
D. Uses of funds are indicated by the increases in assets and decreases in liabilities
and equity, including dividends paid.
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19.4
CASH BUDGETING
A. The cash budget estimates sources and uses of funds in future periods and
provides information related to future cash needs and a plan for future cash flows.
Forecast Sources of Cash
A. A sales forecast is the primary independent variable behind a cash budget.
B. Cash inflows are derived primarily from the collections of accounts receivable
which are related to the credit terms, the payment practices of customers, the
collection efforts of the firms, and the level of credit sales. An estimate of the
collections and the extent to which these lag behind sales is an important estimate.
See Table 19.6.
C. Other cash inflows are added to each period considered which could be weekly,
monthly, or here, quarterly.
Quarter
First
1. Receivables at start of period
2. Sales
3. Collections
Sales in current period (80%)
Sales in last period (20%)
Total Collections
4. Receivables at end of period
(4 1 2 3)
Second
Third
Fourth
$30
87.5
$32.5
78.5
$30.7
116.0
$38.2
131.0
70.0
15.0a
$85.0
62.8
17.5
$80.3
92.8
15.7
$108.5
104.8
23.2
$128.0
$32.5
$30.7
$38.2
$41.2
Forecast Uses of Cash
A. Cash outflow estimates in the coming periods include payments of accounts
payable, labour and administrative costs and other expenses, capital expenditures,
taxes, interest, principal payments on loans, and dividends. See Table 19.7.
B. Delaying payment or stretching payable offers the benefit of saving cash but the
cost of discounts missed and possible termination of the supplier relationship.
The Cash Balance
A. The cash budget is usually comprised of a starting cash position in each period,
followed by the net cash flow in the period giving the cash at the end of the
period.
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B. A minimum cash balance is assumed and a cumulative cash surplus or shortage
(borrowing needed) balance is estimated. The changes in the cumulative account
are caused by the net cash flow in each period adjusted for borrowing and lending.
See Table 19.8.
Cash at start of period
Net cash inflow (from Table 19.7)
Cash at end of perioda
Minimum operating cash balance
Cumulative short-term financing
required(minimum cash balance
minus cash at the end of the peroid)b
$5
-45
-40
5
$45
-$40
-15
-55
5
$60
-$55
+26
-29
5
$34
-$29
+35
+6
5
-$1
a
Of course firms cannot literally hold a negative amount of cash. This line shows the amount of cash the
firm will have to raise to pay its bills.
b
A negative sign indicates that no short-term financing is required. Instead the firm has a cash surplus.
19.5
A SHORT-TERM FINANCING PLAN
Options for Short-Term Financing
A. The options for short-term financing include trade credit (accounts payable),
accruals (delay in the receipt of services such as labour before payment), and
negotiated, short-term borrowing.
B. Stretching payables is costly if discounts are missed, but must be compared with
taking the discounts and financing the early payments at the bank.
19.6
SOURCES OF SHORT-TERM FINANCING
Bank Loans
A. A business interested in bank financing should establish a line of credit with the
bank, an agreement by a bank that a company may borrow at any time up to an
established limit.
B. A revolving credit arrangement is a line of credit that establishes, for a fee to the
bank, a level of credit that the business may borrow at any time during the period.
C. Lines of credit may be associated with a minimum deposit balance requirement
for the business called a compensating balance. Compensating balances, because
they force the business to borrow more or use less of the loan, may increase the
effective cost of the loan.
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D. The effective cost of a loan is the total charges paid annualized, divided by the
amount of borrowed funds available to the business. In general terms, this is:
Effective interest rate =
on compensating balance
actual interest paid
borrowed funds available
The formula for the effective annual rate on a loan with compensating balances is
provided in page 594 of the book.
Commercial Paper
A. A larger business with a high quality credit rating may issue short-term, unsecured
notes, called commercial paper, in financial markets.
B. The credit quality of commercial paper is enhanced by backup lines of credit from
commercial banks, which would provide loans to the borrowing business to payoff the commercial paper if credit problems arose and new commercial paper
could not be sold to the market.
C. In Canada, commercial paper can sometimes have a maturity of a year, although
corporations mostly issue these instruments for periods of 1, 2 or 3 months.
Banker’s Acceptance
A. This instrument is created when a time draft (which is much like a post-dated
cheque) is submitted by a firm to the bank for acceptance. When the bank stamps
“accepted” on the draft it becomes a banker’s acceptance and represents an
unconditional promise of the bank to pay the amount stated on the draft when it
matures.
B. As such, a banker’s acceptance becomes the bank’s IOU and can be sold to
portfolio investors, such as money market funds, pension funds and banks, in the
acceptance market. We shall revisit this topic in Chapter 21.
Secured Loans
A. Current assets such as inventory and accounts receivable are often used as security
for business loans.
B. Accounts receivable may be pledged or assigned as security for a loan or sold or
factored to shorten the cash conversion cycle.
C. Standardized, identifiable inventory, such as autos, make excellent collateral for
loans, whereas perishable low value items are less likely to serve as security for a
loan.
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D. A lender must establish some control over inventory pledged for a loan. The
lender may have a general lien on inventory, hold title as with autos, store in a
warehouse away from the business, or set certain inventory items aside in a field
warehouse to limit access by the borrower.
19.7
THE COST OF BANK LOANS
Simple Interest
A. Simple interest (interest paid each period) loans are calculated as principal times
periodic rate (annual rate/# of rate periods per year) times time (length of time in
interest period).
B. Deferring monthly interest payments owed compounds the cost and increases the
effective cost of financing.
Discount Interest
A. Discounting interest (deducting interest when the loan is made) increases the
effective cost of financing.
B. Discounting reduces the amount of available funds.
Interest with Compensating Balances
A. Compensating balance requirements, to the extent that they require more deposit
balances, increases the effective cost of funds.
B. For a given amount of borrowing, compensating balances reduce the amount of
available funds.
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